Independent News & Media has secured yet another stay of execution, with creditors understood to have agreed a fourth extension of the repayment of a €200m (£175m) bond originally due in May.

The standstill agreement, which expires on Thursday, will be extended for one month, the Guardian has learnt. It gives the ailing owner of the Independent and Irish Independent newspapers yet more time to thrash out a deal with its bondholders.

The board of INM is due to meet on Thursday to discuss the company's precarious financial position, which has seen INM's share price plunge by 80% over the past year, ahead of half-year results on Friday. Those figures are expected to show that the recession has continued to pound the advertising market.

There is still a considerable gap between the two sides over the extent to which the €200m tranche of bonds will be repaid and pushing those talks into September means those negotiations will coincide with €50m of the company's bank debt falling due.

INM insiders maintain that recent disposals and further planned divestments mean the company has the cash to meet the bank repayment.

The bond deal, however, is a thornier issue. "An agreement will eventually come," one person involved in the negotiations said. "We have to do some work, but I think it will restructure."

Bondholders owed the €200m propose swapping their debt for most of the company's equity, wiping out the 29.5% owned by the family of the chief executive, Gavin O'Reilly, and the 26% owned by Irish billionaire Denis O'Brien. In May Gavin O'Reilly took over from his father Sir Anthony, who built up INM over several years, after a crucial deal with O'Brien, who had been a persistent critic of management at the company. Last month O'Brien warned that the future of the publisher, which also has operations in Australia, South Africa and Asia, hung in the balance as the refinancing talks dragged on.

The bondholders are not requesting the majority shareholders inject additional capital in the ailing business, but demand that if they want to keep a stake in the company they should buy it from them after the proposed debt-for-equity swap. Shareholders are vehemently opposed to such an all-out takeover by bondholders.

The board of INM has proposed that O'Brien and O'Reilly inject about €60m into the company, while it will be able to raise a slightly smaller amount from asset disposals. In July, INM sold down its stake in Indian newspaper publisher Jagran Prakashan, raising €22m. It also sold its 18% stake in Cashcade, the owner of gaming brands including Foxy Bingo, for €15.3m to PartyGaming.

Together the cash from shareholders and divestments was supposed to be used to pay off the bondholders, whose bonds are trading at less than a quarter of their face value, and, to sweeten the pill, bondholders would also be given a 10% stake in the company.

But the fact that negotiations have dragged on into September will mean that €50m of the proceeds from INM's recent disposals will have to be diverted to pay off the bank debt. As a result, INM will have to look for more assets to sell or other areas where costs can be slashed, and Friday's results are expected to spark further speculation about a possible sale, or even closure, of the loss-making Independent titles in Britain.